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Stranger Things · A Viewer's Companion

Four families, one adopted psychic — and the monster who used to be somebody's son.

Hawkins looks like ordinary suburbia until you try to keep its households straight: which boy belongs to which mom, why Max and Billy share a house but not a name, and how Eleven ends up with three different families — a birth mother the lab destroyed, a “Papa” who caged her, and the small-town cop who adopts her. Blue borders are the Hawkins households, neon pink marks the adopted and blended ties, and the sickly green is Hawkins National Laboratory and the Creel house — where the show's biggest reveal lives.

Hawkins households adopted & blended family the lab & the Creel house marriage couple (unmarried) parent → child the lab's hidden ties 011 lab test-subject number † dead — through Season 4
m. m. together at last — S4 adopts El — S3–S4 Sara † — his daughter, lost to illness Charles & Sue Sinclair — their parents Claudia Henderson — his mom Neil (his dad) m. Susan (her mom) step-siblings — S2 young love on-again, off-again — S2 onward her birth mother — the lab took her baby “011” — taken at birth, raised by “Papa” · the lab & the Creel house — 1959 → 1979 · sisters m. Virginia † — killed 1959 “008” — El’s lab “sister” “001” — the lab’s first child the Creel children Lonnie Byers the absent father Ross Partridge shows up when it pays Joyce Byers the mom who believed Winona Ryder Christmas-lights oracle Jim Hopper Hawkins chief of police David Harbour El’s adoptive dad Ted Wheeler asleep in the La-Z-Boy Joe Chrest notices nothing, ever Karen Wheeler Wheeler matriarch Cara Buono nearly ran off with Billy Billy Hargrove † Max’s step-brother Dacre Montgomery Mind-Flayed — dies S3 Jonathan Byers eldest Byers · photographer Charlie Heaton dating Nancy Wheeler Will Byers the boy who vanished Noah Schnapp episode 1 is about him 011 Eleven — “El” born Jane Ives Millie Bobby Brown three families, one kid Mike Wheeler leader of the party Finn Wolfhard the basement HQ is his Nancy Wheeler student journalist Natalia Dyer never misses a shot Holly Wheeler the little sister Anniston & Tinsley Price sees more than she says Lucas Sinclair the party’s skeptic Caleb McLaughlin wrist-rocket marksman Erica Sinclair Lucas’s little sister Priah Ferguson S3’s vent-crawling spy Dustin Henderson the party’s heart Gaten Matarazzo Steve’s true soulmate Max Mayfield skateboard newcomer — S2 Sadie Sink “Running Up That Hill” Becky Ives Terry’s sister — El’s aunt Amy Seimetz cares for Terry Terry Ives El’s birth mother Aimee Mullins left catatonic by the lab Martin Brenner † “Papa” — ran the lab Matthew Modine dies S4, unforgiven Victor Creel Henry’s father Robert Englund framed for the murders 008 Kali Prasad “Eight” — illusionist Linnea Berthelsen escaped to Chicago — S2 001 Henry Creel “One” → Vecna Jamie Campbell Bower the Season 4 reveal Alice Creel † Henry’s little sister Livi Birch killed by Henry — 1959
Hover over any portrait to enlarge it. How to read it: gold lines are marriages (dotted gold = a couple who never made it official), grey lines run from parents down to their kids, the dashed gold line is Hopper adopting El, and the dashed red lines are Hawkins Lab’s hidden ties — Brenner taking baby Jane from Terry Ives to raise as “Eleven,” and the numbered children of his program. Henry Creel sits in both worlds on purpose: son of Victor and Virginia Creel by blood, subject “001” by Brenner’s hand, and Vecna by Season 4’s big reveal. Covers the story through the end of Season 4.

Why the chart matters: the show runs on family wiring

Every season's mystery is really a question about one of these households — who's missing from it, who joined it, or who it failed.

The spine

Eleven's three families

El was born Jane Ives to Terry, who was dosed and experimented on while pregnant; the lab took the baby and told her she'd miscarried. Dr. Brenner — “Papa” — raised her as test subject 011. And after she escaped, Hopper hid her, fed her Eggos, and legally adopted her as Jane Hopper. Birth family, lab “family,” chosen family: the pink lines on the chart are her whole arc.

The reveal

Who Vecna actually is

Season 4's monster isn't an ancient evil — he's Henry Creel, the boy from the haunted house. Henry killed his mother Virginia and sister Alice in 1959; his father Victor took the blame and the asylum cell. Brenner collected Henry as 001, the lab's first child. When El finally overpowered him in 1979, she blasted him into the Upside Down — where he became Vecna. The lab didn't fight the monster. It made him.

The blended house

Max & Billy: step-siblings, not blood

Max Mayfield and Billy Hargrove share a house because Billy's dad Neil married Max's mom Susan — hence the different surnames. Billy dies a Mind-Flayed half-hero in Season 3, and Max's unprocessed grief over him is exactly the wound Vecna digs into in Season 4. One dashed pink line; two seasons of consequences.

The four households

The party vs. the families

The boys aren't brothers — easy to forget. Mike is a Wheeler, Will a Byers, Lucas a Sinclair, Dustin a Henderson (his mom Claudia mostly worries offscreen). Their D&D “party” is the one family they chose, and each season drags a few more parents and siblings into the fight.

The slow burn

Joyce & Hopper

Two wrecked single parents — Joyce raising her boys after Lonnie walked out, Hopper hollowed by his daughter Sara's death — keep saving the town together. He “dies” closing the gate in Season 3, turns up alive in a Russian prison camp, and Season 4 ends with Joyce having crossed the planet to bring him home to a full, strange, blended dinner table.

The mix-up decoder

The names newcomers actually confuse, sorted out in one line each:

Which boy is which?

Will = the one who vanished into the Upside Down (bowl cut, haunted). Mike = the leader, El's boyfriend. Dustin = curls, no front teeth, walkie-talkie science. Lucas = the skeptic with the wrist-rocket, Max's on-off boyfriend.

One vs. Eight vs. Eleven

The numbers are lab test subjects, in order of intake. 001 = Henry Creel, the first and worst. 008 = Kali, the illusion-caster El finds in Chicago. 011 = El herself. There were others; these are the three the show follows.

Byers vs. Wheeler

Byers = the poor side of town: Joyce, Jonathan, Will. Wheeler = cul-de-sac comfort: Karen, Ted, Nancy, Mike, Holly. The show's two couples bridge them: Joyce+Hopper, and Jonathan+Nancy.

Sara vs. El

Hopper's two daughters. Sara was his biological child, who died of illness before the series — the blue hair tie he wears is hers. El is the daughter he chose. His whole arc is losing one and refusing to lose the other.

Jonathan vs. Steve

Nancy's two loves. Steve Harrington = the hair, the bat with nails, boyfriend in S1–2, then the show's best babysitter. Jonathan Byers = Will's quiet older brother, her partner from S2 on. The triangle never quite dies.

Terry vs. Joyce vs. Karen

Three mothers, three fates. Terry Ives = El's birth mom, mind broken by the lab, looping the same words. Joyce = the mom who tore her house apart and was right. Karen = the mom who nearly fell for Billy and still hasn't noticed the apocalypse.

Mayfield vs. Hargrove

Same house, different names: Max Mayfield is Susan's daughter, Billy Hargrove is Neil's son. Their parents married in California and hauled both kids to Hawkins. Step-siblings — no blood between them.

Vecna vs. the Mind Flayer vs. the Demogorgon

Demogorgon = the faceless S1 predator (a species, it turns out). The Mind Flayer = the towering shadow-storm of S2–3. Vecna = the S4 villain with a name, a childhood, and a card on this chart — the one monster who's also a family member.

Not family — but always in the fight

Steve Harrington as seen in the show, played by Joe Keery

Steve Harrington

Joe Keery

King of Hawkins High turned den mother to the entire party. Nancy's ex, Dustin's big brother in every way that counts, and owner of the bat with the nails in it.

Robin Buckley as seen in the show, played by Maya Hawke

Robin Buckley

Maya Hawke

Steve's Scoops Ahoy co-worker and platonic soulmate since S3 — the Russian-decoding, fast-talking best friend who came out to him under the mall.

Eddie Munson as seen in the show, played by Joseph Quinn

Eddie Munson †

Joseph Quinn

Hellfire Club dungeon master, Hawkins’ scapegoat, and owner of Season 4’s guitar solo in the Upside Down. Dies a hero; the town never learns it.

Murray Bauman as seen in the show, played by Brett Gelman

Murray Bauman

Brett Gelman

Conspiracy-theorist investigator who keeps being right — and the show’s bluntest couples counselor, from Jonathan & Nancy to Joyce & Hopper.

A note on the portraits: these are the characters as they appear on screen — stills from the Stranger Things wiki, cropped and served from this site so nothing loads from anyone else’s servers. Scope: this chart covers Seasons 1–4 (2016–2022), spoilers to there — every † and relationship above is as of the end of Season 4. Season 5 (2025) is deliberately not charted here, so its endings stay unspoiled.